Diablo III's Auction House System Explained

When the auction house in Diablo III was first introduced by Blizzard in August, many fans voiced their displeasure. Many frowned upon Blizzard's idea of allowing players to perform transactions with both real money and in-game gold. What they didn't realize is that the Auction House will allow players to set the prices of virtual goods in Diablo III, and not the developers. Back then I supported the new Auction House System, and after Blizzard revealed the specifics about the Auction House, I am proud to say that I still think it's a good idea.

Up until now, information about the Diablo III auction house was sparse. But at BlizzCon, Blizzard revealed a few more details about the debatable system.

"Our goal with all of our games is to ensure players have a highly enjoyable, rewarding, and secure experience," said Blizzard of the service. "Acquiring items has always been an important part of the Diablo series, but the previous games have not had a robust, centralized system for facilitating trades, and as a result players have turned to inconvenient and potentially unsafe alternatives, such as third-party real-money-trading organizations." I'm sure we're all aware of the gold scams, "duping" hacks, etc. that plagued Diablo II. Not to mention, how annoying was it creating a new game with a title advertising that you are trading your items.

Blizzard further explained, "Many of the transactions between players and these organizations led to a poor player experience and countless customer-service issues involving scams and item/account theft, to name a few. To that end, we wanted to create a convenient, powerful, and fully integrated tool to meet the demand of players who wished to purchase or sell items for real-world currency, and who would likely have turned to a less-secure third-party service for this convenience."

At BlizzCon, Blizzard detailed exactly how the auction house system would function for players.

"Players will be able to make purchases in the currency-based auction house using a registered form of payment attached to their Battle.net account. As with other popular online-purchase services, players will also have the option to charge up their Battle.net account with a balance of funds that can be drawn from for purchases of any digital product available through Battle.net. When players sell an item in the currency-based auction house, the proceeds of the sale are deposited into their Battle.net account."

"Fans still concerned about using the currency-based auction house can rest easy knowing that the feature is completely optional. After all, the main mode of acquiring awesome items and equipment is still by playing the Diablo III’s core adventure. Besides, there will be no shortage of opportunities to trade with friends and use the full-featured gold-based auction house. Considering that every single item from the most basic of salvaged components to absolutely epic weapons and armor can be traded, bought, and sold, Diablo III will likely keep players busy with the sheer joy that comes with acquiring and managing loot.

“We’ve always tailored our business models to match what we’ve felt would be most appropriate and effective for each game and in each region, and that’s the case with Diablo III as well. The item-based nature of Diablo gameplay has always lent itself to an active trade-based ecosystem.”

Will the Diablo III auction house system ruin the Diablo III experience for you or do you plan on capitalizing on all of the phat loot?